[timmins]

Maybe. My perspective is that Yahoo! did some research on why people left, stopped using, or never considered Y! as their mail service. I presume one of the responses is that people dislike non-vanity addresses. Instead of [e-mail], the only variations that remain include thomasted110@ or tedthomasemail@. Ugh.

A simple query would show that these vanity addresses are sitting stagnant. A touch of PR and awareness instills or revives interest.

I think an optimistic view is that Yahoo! is willing to cut the fat and take chances on reuniting strayed in addition to inviting new users.

[tagold]

Even leaving all negative conservatives of this decision aside for now, it hardly does solves anything.

If thomasted110 is the best what's available for now at yahoo, there will be, simplifying a bit, 109 another unhappy users (thomasted1..thomasted109) + tedthomas_xx users + other unhappy Ted Thomases settled for different username at yahoo.com.

None of them is aware if tedthomas will be available. Most of them will not even know that this grand redistribution will take place. In the end if tedthomas will be "reused" only one of them will be moderately happy, while others are no better of.